I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You
by The H-Experiment
Summary: Ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, you name it, Natsu could do it. What he couldn't do, however, was get his best friend to fall in love with him. After all, when you're in high school, football players get the girl, not well trained technical dancers. High School!AU Nalu with mild Stilu
1. The One Where He Knows How to Do Ballet

_if you follow me on tumblr, you might recognize this fic but i wanted to post on ff so here it is! also, i pushed some parts together to make chapters so the divisions arent the same as on tumblr._

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1: The One Where Natsu Knows How to Do Ballet**_

 _x_

Natsu Dragneel wasn't really what you considered popular. He was well liked at his high school and a lot of people knew him thanks to his boisterous and endearing personality, but he wasn't the typical popular guy you saw in those teenage romantic comedy movies. He wasn't the high school heartthrob or the homecoming king. No, that status was more fitting of the football player he was currently talking to, Sting Eucliffe.

"So um, do you think you can help me?"

Natsu stared blankly. Sting, the school's football captain stood in front of him, fidgeting awkwardly. When Natsu didn't say anything to answer the question, Sting looked even more uncomfortable.

The last bell of the day had rung and Natsu had been on his way to the outer gates when Sting ran up to him, asking to talk. Naturally, Natsu had been a little suspicious. He didn't think he and Sting had ever had a full conversation. It's not like they hated each other or they were enemies or anything, they just ran in different circles.

"I-I'm sorry, come again?"

Sting sighed heavily before rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"C-can you teach me how to dance?"

"Eh?"

"I mean, like I said, prom is coming up and agh, I don't know, I don't wanna embarrass myself around her because that would be terrible you know." Sting sputtered slightly, looking more and more flustered with himself as he spoke. "Look, I just wanna impress her okay?"

"Ah."

The 'her' in question was his best friend. Lucy Heartfilia. She was blonde, beautiful, caring, sweet, and also his best friend for about thirteen years now. They had met when they were wee little kids in kindergarten and they had stuck together ever since. Natsu liked to think that she completed him. The two complemented each other in a way that only best friends could. She was the yin to his yang. The peanut butter to his jelly. The Cana to his alcohol.

She was also dating Sting Eucliffe.

"Um, I'm a little flattered I guess but why are you asking me? Why not ask, I don't know, your friends?" Natsu absently scratched his messy pink hair. "No offense but…we don't really know each other. Or talk for that matter."

"Well," he sighed as if he had known Natsu was going to question him, "I can't just ask anyone to help me. My friends probably don't know any more than bouncing to the beat and that's just not good enough." Sting looked at Natsu with earnest eyes and Natsu awkwardly swallowed. "I really want to impress her and what I need is the best and who better than you?"

Him? The best?

Well he wasn't _wrong_.

Natsu was special. He was a little different than the average high school boy and not because he had pink (salmon!) hair or because he always wore a scarf no matter what the weather was, he was different because Natsu Dragneel knew how to dance. And by dance he didn't mean the what teenagers did at high school dances or what college kids did at clubs, no he meant _dance_ as in ballet, tap, jazz funk, contemporary.

Yeah, that's right.

Natsu Dragneel knew how to do ballet.

While some parents decided to put their kids in things like sports or music or martial arts, his parents decided to be _different_ and throw him into a dance studio. As early as he could remember, he was taking classes in formal technique, spending countless evenings and weekends in that studio, learning countless combinations and pieces. Thankfully, his parents decision worked out well enough because although what he did wasn't normal for teenage boys, he was good at it. Damn good at it. So what if some people thought what he did was girly? He had won multiple dance competitions and was even being asked to choreograph for other studios. So, Sting was right to come to him. He was an accomplished dancer, teaching someone a few quick easy steps to last through prom would be breeze.

The question was: Did he _want_ to teach Sting?

After all, he was kinda in love with his best friend and didn't normal young adult romcoms dictate that he was supposed to say no or put up a fight?

Sting fidgeted pitifully and Natsu sighed.

Who was he kidding, the boy was a mess and although he wanted nothing more than to sweep Lucy off her feet himself, Sting had gotten there first and he had to respect that. Besides, she was happy with him and that meant Natsu was happy. He didn't want to ruin what she had for selfish reasons if she was already happy.

"Yeah yeah yeah, alright, I'll teach ya," Natsu rolled his eyes when Sting whooped happily.

He had a month to teach Sting how to dance, how hard could it be?

* * *

"Okay, so this is gonna be a lot harder than I thought."

Natsu sighed and looked down at the poor blonde haired boy was moaning pitifully on the floor of his empty basement turned home studio. Somehow, in the span of the last five minutes, Sting had knocked a cup off a table, broken a mirror, and fallen on his ass a total of five times, all because Natsu tried teaching him a box step.

"Man I need to get that replaced," Natsu muttered, inspecting the shattered mirror on the wall. When he transformed the basement into his practice space, he had installed mirrors against every wall along with ballet barre. Now, however, one of the panels was broken thanks to Sting colliding his foot against it.

"I told you," Sting moaned, "I'm terrible at this. I'm hopeless, I can't dance!"

"You're telling me," Natsu scratched the back of his head. "I mean, I know you said you were bad but I didn't think you were _this_ bad."

"Thanks."

It was only day one and they were already running into some problems. For one, it was apparent that Sting was ridiculously uncoordinated with his feet.

"For some reason, I didn't expect you to be this clumsy, being a football player and all."

Sting just shrugged. "Football's just running and throwing and that's easy. Running? Just put one foot in front of the other. Catching? The ball comes at you and you don't wanna get hit in the face? Catch it! But this?" Sting waved his hands. "This is hard. This is fancy footwork."

But it seemed like his clumsiness wasn't the only problem. From what Natsu could see, it seemed like Sting had a hard time getting the basic rhythm of music. While people could easily tap their feet or nod their heads to the beat of the song, Sting was always a slightly _off_ which led Natsu to believe that Sting just couldn't hear the rhythm at all. Combine that with some incredible clumsiness and they were in for a rough time.

"Okay," Natsu said, reaching a hand out that Sting gratefully grabbed to pull himself up, "Maybe let's start with something more simple. Like, maybe, just finding the rhythm of the music."

Natsu grabbed his phone off the table in the corner of the room and scrolled through his music to find an appropriate song. He chose one and a second later, an upbeat, pop song filtered through the speakers he installed in the studio. Nodding his head slightly, he turned to the football player.

"Alright, so what you gotta listen for is the beat of the music." Natsu snapped his fingers along with the bass of the song, "Do you hear that? That's the tempo of the song and that's what you keep in mind when you dance."

Sting nodded hesitantly and began snapping his fingers.

"There you g—wait, no no, ah, no." Natsu snapped his fingers a little louder. "Okay what about now? Don't listen to the vocals, listen to the instruments, listen to the drums."

It took them a few songs but eventually, Sting got the hang of it and soon, the two boys were enthusiastically nodding along to the latest popular songs blasting over the speakers.

"Hey I got it!" Sting shouted over the loud music. Natsu had decided to turn up the speakers for Sting to hear the bass, but also because it was always fun to listen to music on full blast.

"Yeah!" he shouted back as he bounced along to the music. "Hey how about you try swaying back and forth to the music!"

"Okay!" Sting tried stepping to one side and almost immediately, his foot got caught in the other and the graceless football player tumbled to the ground in a mess of flailing limbs.

Natsu continued his bouncing as he stared down at the fallen boy on the ground.

"You know what, maybe we'll call it a day!" he shouted.

A groan was his answer.

* * *

 _note: hello! so after seeing all the cute dance!au fics out there, i wanted to write one myself but i also wanted a fic where natsu was the dancer instead. i wasn't sure what to right but theeennn i watched this one Friends episode where chandler takes dance lessons to impress monica for their wedding and that was cute. and theeennnnnn i heard the song I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You by The Black Kids. and then boom, this fic came alive. hope you like it!_


	2. The One Where Natsu Brings In Backup

**_Chapter 2: The One Where Natsu Brings In Backup_**

 _x_

"Natsu! Natsuu!"

Natsu turned at the call of his name and saw his best friend running towards him with an elated look on her face. School had just ended and he was out by his locker, putting his books away. Lucy skidded to a stop in front of him, cheeks flushed and eyes bright.

"Ready to walk home?" she asked.

Natsu blanched. He and Lucy typically walked home together most days because he lived a block away from her. They walked home nearly every day except for the days that she had club meetings and today wasn't one of those days. The only problem was: Natsu had agreed to meet up and walk back to his place with Sting for another lesson.

"Uhhh, about that…" Natsu sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm kinda…busy today. I can't walk back, sorry."

Lucy blinked. "Oh? What are you doing?"

Natsu thought frantically. "Uhhh, clubs! I'm checking out clubs. Yeah."

She raised an eyebrow. "It's nearly the end of the year. And you're graduating."

"I just…wanted to see what I was missing out on."

He hated lying to her but he and Sting had agreed to keep their little arrangement a secret, especially from her. Sting wanted to surprise her with his new-found dancing abilities and Natsu just wanted to keep the fact that he was helping her boyfriend a secret.

Lucy gave him an odd look before she shrugged. "Alright then," she said. Natsu breathed an inward sigh of relief but she continued. "I guess I'll just ask Sting if he wants to walk me bac—oh there he is!"

Natsu's eyes widened in panic before he spun around, locking eyes with an equally panicked Sting. Sting stumbled slightly, having not seen Lucy due to Natsu blocking her from sight. Lucy didn't notice their weird reactions and she bounded up to Sting, giving him a hug.

"Sting!"

"O-oh, Lucy! I, uh, didn't see you there."

"You don't have practice today right?" she asked.

Sting quirked an eyebrow down at the shorter girl, "No? Why what's up?"

"I know me and Natsu usually walk home because we live so close together but he's busy today so do you wanna walk together? Just until our paths split?"

Sting gave a casual shrug, "Yeah sure, I don't mind," he said until he saw Natsu standing behind Lucy vigorously flailing his arms. "Oh! I- uhh, I can't…actually." _Shit_ he almost forgot about their lesson today.

Lucy's eyebrows furrowed, "You can't?"

"Yeah! I…have practice?" Off to the side, Natsu smacked his hand against his forehead.

"I thought you said you didn't have practice?" Lucy asked, perfectly plucked eyebrows still furrowed.

"Uh I meant, I _don't_ have practice but I still have football. We have a meeting." Sting could feel the sweat drip down the side of his face. "Yeah, a meeting."

Lucy blinked before crossing her arms, giving her boyfriend a peculiar stare. Standing on the sidelines, Natsu winced. He knew that look, that was the look of her not buying it at all. He knew he was bad at lying but apparently, Sting was even worse.

"You guys have meetings on off days?"

"No it's just me and the coach, actually," Sting recovered, "Football captain stuff you know?"

Natsu decided to take pity on the boy and jump in for support. "Oh football captain stuff! We wouldn't understand right, Lucy?" He laughed nervously, "Us being not football players and all!"

Sting nodded enthusiastically.

Lucy gave the two of them a suspicious look. Natsu inwardly gulped and he could see Sting's left eye twitching. Just when he thought Lucy would question them more, her shoulders slumped and she sighed. "Okay, you two are acting weird." They flinched. "But whatever, I guess I'll see if Levy will give me a ride home or something."

Natsu sighed quietly in relief. "Sorry Luce," he said, giving her an apologetic look. Sting echoed him and gave her an equally pathetic look.

She rolled her eyes before letting out a small huff of laughter. "Yeah yeah yeah," she said, "You have fun with your…clubs," she said staring at Natsu, "and your…football captain meeting," at Sting.

She walked away with a flick of her pretty blonde hair and the two boys let out a simultaneous breath of relief.

"Aw man that was close," Sting muttered, "I totally forgot we had a lesson today!"

Natsu snorted, "Yeah I know, I was _there._ I thought _I_ was bad at lying but holy crap, you're even worse."

"It's not my fault! It's those stupidly pretty eyes! How could anyone lie knowing those eyes are looking at 'em all pretty and brown and stuff?"

Natsu sighed, crossing his arms. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"Do you think she suspected anything?" Sting asked, giving Natsu a side look.

"Considering how terrible we are at lying, then most definitely, yes. She probably thinks we're up to something. But," Natsu held up a finger, "She probably doesn't think we're up to anything _together_ and that's good enough."

"Yeah you're right," Sting agreed. "That was a close one though. We need to be more careful about sneaking around like this."

"Geez you make it sound like you're cheating on her with me."

"To be fair, we _have_ been holding a hands a lot."

"You're right."

Hey, _someone_ had to be the girl for partner dance and it wasn't like Sting could do it.

"We should get going," Natsu muttered, eyeing the end of the hallway. "Lucy might come back this way if she's going home with Levy."

"Oh shit, you're right."

They turned to the double doors at the other end of the hallway and Natsu grinned at Sting. "So, you ready for lesson number two?"

"No."

"Too bad!"

* * *

"Due to how terrible you kinda are at this, I've decided to bring in back up."

"Yo."

Natsu stood in the middle of his studio while Gray stood behind him and waved. It was their third 'lesson' and after some disastrous moments and hard thinking, Natsu had decided that some help would've been nice and although he pretty much hated the guy, he had to admit, he was the best option.

"Gray Fullbuster? Seriously?" Sting gaped. "Aren't you like, on the swim team or something?"

Gray just crossed his arms and sighed. "Yeah, I'm on the varsity swim team but not a lot of people know I also dance on the side. I go to the same studio as this guy," he said, cocking his head at Natsu, "I just focus on swim more nowadays."

"Yeah and the reason why he decided to swim was because I beat him at a dance comp before we got to high school and he was so mad," Natsu cackled.

"Shut up fire crotch, the only reason I tried out was because I wanted other interests," Gray hissed.

"Well that's understandable since your first interest was in _losing_ ," Natsu jeered before jumping away from Gray's flying fist. "Oi!"

" _Asshole!"_

Sting stood there with a blank look on his face, watching the two boys fight. He had no idea dancers were so… _violent._ He winced as Natsu came close to breaking another one of his mirrors. If all dancers were this violent aybe he should've tried dancing when he was younger instead of sports.

"Erm, guys…?" Sting watched the two boys fall to ground and start wrestling. "Hey guys…?" Gray put Natsu in a chokehold. "Guys…"

Sting rubbed the area in between his eyebrows. And he was the student? He felt like the teacher looking over two unruly kids. Using his best football captain voice, Sting shouted, "Hey!" Natsu and Gray froze in their position, Natsu gripping Gray's hair and Gray's hands around Natsu's neck. "I still need to learn how to dance and unless you want me to accidentally break my girlfriend's foot, I need you two to teach me!"

Natsu and Gray blinked up at the red-faced blond boy before looked at each other and jumped away.

"Ahh, yeah you're right, my bad man," Natsu said, rubbing the back of his neck. "This guy just pisses me off so much you know?"

Gray snorted, " _I'm_ the one who pisses you off? What about you, you pink haired twat?"

" _Oi—"_

"Okay!" Sting shouted over Natsu, "Can we get onto dancing? I'm ready to do like, turns and shit."

" _Turns?_ " Gray laughed, "Oh no no, we're gonna start you off easy."

"Right!" Natsu jumped up from his position on the floor. "We're gonna teach you the basics again and hopefully it'll be easier with droopy eyes over here."

Gray dusted himself off as he stood and nodded, "Hopefully. He said you were terrible and while he certainly knows his training, he doesn't have the patience to teach a poor sap like you." Natsu nodded in agreement.

"Okay thanks," Sting muttered.

"Also, you can't really teach partner dance and be the partner at the same time." Gray crossed his arms and pinned Sting with a serious stare. "If you're gonna learn how to dance, you're gonna learn correctly."

Sting gulped.

Gray and Natsu stood side by side like some weird dancer duo and they both nodded at Sting. "Together, with Natsu's experience and my patience, we'll teach you the basics of ballroom dancing, maybe even some technique, and hell, let's teach you some hip hop grooves too. With us two, this will probably be the most thorough crash course in dance anyone will ever get."

"Yosh!" Natsu cheered, "You ready?"

Sting swallowed hard, "Ready as I'll ever be I guess."

"Let's do this!"

* * *

"You know, I'm kinda surprised you agreed to help Sting."

Natsu picked up his water and quirked an eyebrow at the other boy. "What do you mean?" he asked in between sips. It was two days after they worked together to give Sting an introductory class on ballroom dancing and they were both at the studio they danced in. While Natsu went almost every day, Gray was only there on the weekends especially since it was swim season. They just finished a contemporary class and were packing up, ready to leave.

Gray just shrugged. "Well, you know, he's dating Lucy."

"And?"

"And," Gray repeated, "I would've expected you to say no because, well, don't you like her?"

Natsu promptly spat out his water.

"W-what?" I don't like her!" Natsu sputtered. He quickly capped his water and glared at the other dancer. "W-what are you talking about?"

Gray rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Don't even try to pretend, I know you like her."

Natsu growled softly before turning to throw his water into his bag. He avoided Gray's knowing look. "Okay, yeah. I like her. How did you know?"

"Well aside from the love struck look you always have on your face when she's around," Natsu blushed, "It's kinda obvious man."

Natsu groaned and ran his hand down his face. "Arrgh, I thought I was being so slick about too."

"Nope." Gray said, popping the p. "But now that begs the question, why the hell are you teaching her boyfriend how to be a _better_ boyfriend?"

"I'm not teaching Sting to be a better boyfriend, okay, I'm teaching him how to dance. That's different." Natsu shouldered his bag and he and Gray walked out of the dance studio. "And besides, how could I say no to him? He came to me for help and all he wants to do is make Lucy happy. Sting's actually a pretty good guy for a football jock."

"I'm still surprised you agreed though. Doesn't it bother you a little that's he's dating her and not you?"

Natsu sighed, "Well yeah it bothers me sometimes but what can I do? He did what I could never do and he got the girl. And it's not like I'm gonna homewreck either, that's pretty fucked up."

"Well you're being awfully mature about this," Gray said.

Natsu shrugged. "Look, Lucy and Sting are dating and they're happy. Who am I to ruin that?" He sighed and looked at the blue sky. "Besides, compared to guys like Sting, it's not like I ever had a chance, you know?"

"What do you mean?" Gray asked, looking genuinely confused.

"Well, Sting's….. _Sting._ He's like," Natsu gestured wildly, "Popular and shit. He's the football captain, the homecoming king, the…the high school heartthrob!" He kicked the ground with his foot, watching a piece of the cement skid across the flat. "He's the guy that everyone likes and everyone wants to be, you know? How can I compete with that? I mean, look at me!" He suddenly spun around and gestured to himself. "I'm just a stupid boy with pink hair who can do really good pirouettes and fouettes."

"That's not true," Gray argued in a rare moment of kindness, "You're a good guy too, Natsu."

"Yeah but Sting's better." Natsu looked away, "Sting's the guy that Lucy deserves."

Gray fell silent and Natsu knew it was because he, on some deeper level, knew how he felt and felt that same insecurity. He knew that Gray hadn't only picked up swimming because he wanted other interests, he had also picked it up because he knew that guys who played sports were more appreciated in high school than guys who danced. While Gray had adapted, Natsu had stubbornly stuck with dance but things hadn't turned out terrible. Through his own personality and charm, Natsu had become well-liked in his own right. But like he said, there was no way he could compare to someone like Sting.

"Look," Natsu started, "In the end, all that matters is that Lucy is happy. She's my best friend, I care for her, and if going out with Sting makes her happy then so be it. I just want what's best for her and obviously, he's the best."

Gray was silent as they walked across the parking lot. When they reached their cars, the two boys stood there, not knowing what to say after the heartfelt conversation.

"Well, this is my ca—"

"You really care about her don't you?" Gray asked, cutting Natsu off.

Natsu blinked at him before he chuckled softly underneath his breath. "Yeah, yeah I do."

Gray gave him a calculating look before he finally gave in and shrugged. "Well, as long you're okay with everything, I guess it's fine." He walked over to his care and waved a careless hand. "See you later flame brain, don't get lost going home."

"Yeah yeah back atcha!" Natsu yelled, getting into his own car. He stayed in the car even as Gray pulled out of the lot. Once he was sure he was gone, he let out a heavy sigh and slumped against his seat.

"Yeah, I really do care…"

* * *

 _note: i always thought brotps were cute and i have this love/hate relationship with love triangles so here, you get sting and natsu and gray being the ultimate dance bros. i love it. but poor natsu, there's some insight into him. but he's a cute kid, dw._


End file.
